India, Feb. 9 -- After a strong upmove, oil prices fell into the red around noon on Friday, but recovered swiftly to eventually end the day's session moderately higher.
Escalating tensions in the Middle East, raised concerns about supply disruptions and pushed up oil prices.
Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that showed a big drop in gasoline inventories in the U.S. last week continued to support oil prices.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.62 at $76.84 a barrel, gaining for a fifth straight session. WTI crude futures gained more than 6% in the week.
Brent crude futures were up $0.34 or about 0.4% at $81.97 a barrel a little while ago.
Oil prices climbed higher amid risin...